I had no idea

Another world is possible, another U.S. is necessary, another Detroit is happening.” That’s the tagline of the United States Social Forum, a convergence of activists happening this summer in Detroit. Detroit was chosen because it is ground zero for viewing the consequences of our current economic system, and the story of Detroit mirrors a larger story about the relationship between capitalism, race, gender, class, ability, nationality, and other social identities in the United States.

Ba haaa haa haa. That’s an interesting unreality about Detroit. Detroit mirrors a larger story about what happens when progressive policies are allowed to run amok in an urban city. Just about every liberal wet-dream agenda has been in action in Detroit.

But, let’s move on.

When Detroit is in the news (as it was recently due to the tragic murder of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a seven year old who was killed by a Detroit police officer), it is usually portrayed as a place where a culture of hopelessness and lawlessness leads to violence and aggression. But the mainstream media often leaves out the bigger story of how corporations have abandoned Detroit because they prioritize profit margins over people; the story of how the creators of shows like the First 48, a reality show that was filming the police officers who raided Aiyana’s house, create a culture that normalizes state violence against people of color.

Corporations abandoned Detroit because of its high tax rate compounded by it’s crappy city services. Add in the crime, and there you have it. And, you leave out the fact that Aiyana’s daddy was involved in the murder of an innocent 17 year-old child. And that Aiyana’s daddy and family put their daughter in harms way by allowing the murder to sleep under the same roof.

More specifically, the corporations that have abandoned Detroit, creating a city with a sky high unemployment rate and escalating foreclosures, are part of a capitalist system that creates and reinforces structural inequality through wage gaps and unequal access to jobs and resources. This system disproportionately impacts women, especially women of color; transgender people; gender non-conforming people; single mothers; immigrant women; and lesbian gay, bisexual, and queer people.

Oh lord, it’s getting deep. In Detroit (as everywhere), the unemployement rate is higher for men than women, but I suppose facts don’t matter when you’re on a tear. Gender justice is what this author is really all about.

Gender justice is not just about creating wage equality, or increasing access to resources and job training for low-income women and girls, or passing an Employment Non-Discrimination Act that includes protection for transgender and gender non-conforming people. Gender justice is about creating a world where women don’t have to choose between paying for childcare and paying the rent, where people can use whatever bathroom they please without fear of harassment. Gender justice is about creating an environmental justice movement that acknowledges women’s roles as healers and caretakers. Gender justice is about honoring the whole spectrum of gender expression and identity. Gender justice is about ensuring that everyone has access to not just the full range of reproductive health care but holistic health care that connects body, mind and spirit. Gender justice is about all of this, and a whole lot more!

Gender justice is a whole lot of bullshit. Communists sure make strange bedfellows.

Look, I’ve got a GREAT almost sure-fire way to insure that women get their “gender justice” (I could care less about transsexuals concerned about which bathroom to use) – don’t become a baby momma. Get a job before you have a child. Things happen, and no world is perfect, but a society that has accepted that two-parents families are some quaint, out-dated tradition is doomed.

Liberal leadership has a ton of blame for the state of Detroit, but the destruction of the family has caused epic damage. Detroit ranks #1 among that nation’s 50 largest city for unmarried births- 71%. Not only that, but 62% of children live in a home with a single parent. The average for large cities is 37% and the national average is 26%. Detroit blows those averages out of the water.

Yet liberals (and communists) refuse to accept such a simple answer, because men and marriage and Teh PATRIARCHY oppress women, yada yada yada.It blows the mind.

We have been so ingrained to accept this as a fact that to challenge this assertion would seem absurd. Everyone from from religious persons to psychologists will tell you how important a father is in a child’s development. But they have been lying. It has been a social control mechanism. Ohh, but get ready for the backlash…men don’t like being told that they aren’t important, and the women who support these notions, love to support these men (meaning, they, the women, will be angry, too)!

Yea. Marriage as a social control mechanism. Oye, I can’t read any more of this drivel.